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I don't know about you, but using Chrome has always given me this unsettling feeling that somewhere in Google's server farm, a machine is collecting everything

by rufugee 16y ago

I don't know about you, but using Chrome has always given me this unsettling feeling that somewhere in Google's server farm, a machine is collecting everything I do and linking it to my other activity (gmail, gdocs, etc). It might now actually be going on, but it's hard for me to trust that it's not. I just don't like giving a behemoth like Google access to my complete internet history, even though the most harmful thing it could collect on me is how many HN tabs I have open during the work day.

holygoat 16y ago
I'm pretty sure that's the case :D Chrome's location bar provides everything you _type_ to Google, and using its sync feature gives them all of your bookmarks and history.
- slig 16y ago
  > Chrome's location bar provides everything you _type_ to Google That can be changed on about:flags > sync feature gives them all of your bookmarks and history. Unless you don't use Gmail and do all your websearch using Incognito, I don't see that as a problem.
  - code_duck 16y ago
    You can just turn off suggestions in the preferences. I don't think you need to go to the about: settings.
seabee 16y ago
Isn't that what Chromium is for?
cryptoz 16y ago
> It might now actually be going on, but it's hard for me to trust that it's not. Run Chromium. It's fully open source. You can see for yourself that nothing scary is being sent to Google. The same can't be said for Chrome since the source is closed, but there's basically zero difference between the two. The icon is a bit less colorful I guess.
- dstein 16y ago
  Has anyone actually done any research into exactly what data is sent to Google when you use Chrome? Not that it really matters anymore, FF4 is faster than Chrome in my experiments so don't think I'll be using Chrome at all anymore.
  - bilban 16y ago
    You want to talk to the SRWare Iron team.
    - azakai 16y ago
      Why would you trust the "SRWare Iron team", whoever they are, at all? And why would you trust them more than you would trust Google?
      - bilban 16y ago
        I didn't say anything about trust. It was merely a suggestion to look at Iron or talk to the developers as they promote their product as an alternative to Chrome along the lines of privacy. You'd think they'd be in a good position to point out the differences.
    - ephemient 16y ago
      Do you? http://chromium.hybridsource.org/the-iron-scam http://chromium.hybridsource.org/the-iron-scam At a glance, it doesn't seem like much has changed. Some more tweaks and a minor amount of development.
      - bilban 16y ago
        Thanks for the link.
- woogley 16y ago
  > but there's basically zero difference between the two Chrome sports integrated Flash, integrated PDF, and more codec support (though it recently dropped H264 entirely)
primigenus 16y ago
I love giving everything I do to Google. It makes my daily life so much easier. Whenever I think about big corps and how I potentially may not trust them, I look around for people who actually work there. In Google's case, I find young, smart, cool people just like me who I trust not to be dicks and do things with my stuff I wouldn't want them to. They may mess up sometimes (I would), but I feel like I can trust them. The upsides from sharing all of this stuff with Google outweight the possible downsides for me. Just wanted to post this since I feel like not enough people speak up to represent the not-so-paranoid crowd.
- mahmud 16y ago
  In Google's case, I find young, smart, cool people just like me who I trust not to be dicks What is this? has any thought gone behind this? I'm not your peer: I'm stupid, uncool and very, VERY old. That's why I decided to teach you fuckers a lesson and put on my fake cop uniform. With a few fake emails & and a phone call, I convinced Bobby, the head of security at data center #34 in Dallas to give me your life's records. Yours along with 5 million other people.
  - primigenus 16y ago
    I was talking specifically about trusting Google's motivations, not the concept of security itself. You're twisting the issue; of course it's possible that Google's security will be broken somehow. But that's the case with anything, anywhere, anytime. So there's not much point (IMO) in basing decisions around that possibility.
    - mahmud 16y ago
      "Motivation" means jack-squat in world where powerful entities can buy, steal, or subpoena Google's stash of your personal data. And it's no longer just your data, but involves your entire social-graph. Say, you write to your sister about your father's health in great detail, because you chose to "share" your data with Google, now you're sharing his health information as well, and whoever steals or buys this information (remember, Google is a commercial entity) has it.

by rufugee 16y ago

holygoat 16y ago

I'm pretty sure that's the case :D Chrome's location bar provides everything you _type_ to Google, and using its sync feature gives them all of your bookmarks and history.

slig 16y ago
> Chrome's location bar provides everything you _type_ to Google That can be changed on about:flags > sync feature gives them all of your bookmarks and history. Unless you don't use Gmail and do all your websearch using Incognito, I don't see that as a problem.
- code_duck 16y ago
  You can just turn off suggestions in the preferences. I don't think you need to go to the about: settings.

seabee 16y ago

Isn't that what Chromium is for?

cryptoz 16y ago

> It might now actually be going on, but it's hard for me to trust that it's not. Run Chromium. It's fully open source. You can see for yourself that nothing scary is being sent to Google. The same can't be said for Chrome since the source is closed, but there's basically zero difference between the two. The icon is a bit less colorful I guess.

dstein 16y ago
Has anyone actually done any research into exactly what data is sent to Google when you use Chrome? Not that it really matters anymore, FF4 is faster than Chrome in my experiments so don't think I'll be using Chrome at all anymore.
- bilban 16y ago
  You want to talk to the SRWare Iron team.
  - azakai 16y ago
    Why would you trust the "SRWare Iron team", whoever they are, at all? And why would you trust them more than you would trust Google?
    - bilban 16y ago
      I didn't say anything about trust. It was merely a suggestion to look at Iron or talk to the developers as they promote their product as an alternative to Chrome along the lines of privacy. You'd think they'd be in a good position to point out the differences.
  - ephemient 16y ago
    Do you? http://chromium.hybridsource.org/the-iron-scam http://chromium.hybridsource.org/the-iron-scam At a glance, it doesn't seem like much has changed. Some more tweaks and a minor amount of development.
    - bilban 16y ago
      Thanks for the link.
woogley 16y ago
> but there's basically zero difference between the two Chrome sports integrated Flash, integrated PDF, and more codec support (though it recently dropped H264 entirely)

primigenus 16y ago

I love giving everything I do to Google. It makes my daily life so much easier. Whenever I think about big corps and how I potentially may not trust them, I look around for people who actually work there. In Google's case, I find young, smart, cool people just like me who I trust not to be dicks and do things with my stuff I wouldn't want them to. They may mess up sometimes (I would), but I feel like I can trust them. The upsides from sharing all of this stuff with Google outweight the possible downsides for me. Just wanted to post this since I feel like not enough people speak up to represent the not-so-paranoid crowd.

mahmud 16y ago
In Google's case, I find young, smart, cool people just like me who I trust not to be dicks What is this? has any thought gone behind this? I'm not your peer: I'm stupid, uncool and very, VERY old. That's why I decided to teach you fuckers a lesson and put on my fake cop uniform. With a few fake emails & and a phone call, I convinced Bobby, the head of security at data center #34 in Dallas to give me your life's records. Yours along with 5 million other people.
- primigenus 16y ago
  I was talking specifically about trusting Google's motivations, not the concept of security itself. You're twisting the issue; of course it's possible that Google's security will be broken somehow. But that's the case with anything, anywhere, anytime. So there's not much point (IMO) in basing decisions around that possibility.
  - mahmud 16y ago
    "Motivation" means jack-squat in world where powerful entities can buy, steal, or subpoena Google's stash of your personal data. And it's no longer just your data, but involves your entire social-graph. Say, you write to your sister about your father's health in great detail, because you chose to "share" your data with Google, now you're sharing his health information as well, and whoever steals or buys this information (remember, Google is a commercial entity) has it.